Why $4 Gas Will Cause Less Pain This Time

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ANYONE ON WALLSTREET IS A TOTAL IDIOT! I CANT STAND GEEKS! I HATED THEM WHEN I WAS IN SCHOOL AND I STILL HATE THEM! I AGREE WITH WHAT FRAD SAID UP ABOVE IN HIS LETTER ENTITLED "MATH". IT IS INDEED SIMPLE AND ALL U IDIOTS ON WALLSTREET NEED TO WAKE UP AND SEE THE BIG PICTURE. ESPECIALLY U MR.NEWMAN....GO EAT A MOLDY PIECE OF FRUIT OR SOMETHING U SIMPLETON!

DF of NY 2:52AM April 24, 2011

Wall street speculators are the most delusional they have EVER been. Gas prices go up = people buy less, drive less. Gas prices drop to $1.80 - $1.20/gallon = people drive more, spend more because they have MORE money to spend. These are simple economics that even a child could understand. For some reason, Wall Street can't.

frad of IL 3:50AM February 27, 2011

As a small business owner with a fleet of trucks and trailers to operate, 9 miles per gallon each, $4.00 gallon causes serious pain. Raise prices to cover the extra cost which escalates over and over. So, Rick Newman, prepare to pay more for food, milk, bread, etc. and any other service related industry, plumbing, electrical, lawn services, cable, and for products shipped by truck to your favorite stores.

of 8:30AM January 22, 2011

You know many Europeans and other countries have access to good mass transits systems. We here in America do NOT! I live in a segregated suburb in Southern Michigan that has NO decent, reliable, easy to use mass transit! I have 100 + miles to go to drive to work round trip. I would HAPPILY use a mass transit light rail ect but there is NONE! This is Detroit after all, were I am sure our lame mass transit problem has a little to do with being home to the Big 3..so yeah, I do NOT care how much Europeans or other countries have always had to pay for gas. Try living somewhere were owning a car is really the only practical option...

jill of MI 1:18PM January 21, 2011

As a service based business operating work VANS, that have to pull trailers... we have seen our gas bill DOUBLE in the last couple of years. Even if there WERE vans/trucks capable of getting better gas mileage and perform the tasks we need them to; we couldn't AFFORD to buy a new fleet. Once again, the small business, working man (men&women), who are the backbone of America, are the ones who bare the brunt of the greed of Oil Barrons.
Here's a warning: when our backs finally break- there will be no one to buy your oil(gas). The downward spiral may eventually get out of control to a point that NO ONE can stop next time. Obama pulled this one out of his butt, despite what anyone says.
The deck is stacked against Middle America, and if Upper and the rest of us in Middle can't see that Our President is managing to accomplish at least SOME things DESPITE opposition. Imagine if he was given the support he needs to make some of the changes we need to make sure the gas prices actually go DOWN and that WE get the money to get BAILED out instead of the crooked money holders (banks).

Williams of GA 9:49AM January 21, 2011

To reply to an earlier comment, Oil prices are fixed. You can't buy cheaper oil in Alaska than in Venezuala for example. What causes oil prices to rise and fall is the distance to ship it. Therefore, it is cheaper to sell the oil in Alaska to Japan which is closer than the US, and buy it from Venezuala, then the other way around. What does affect oil prices is world supplies. The more oil we sell from Alaska increases the supply of oil which drives down prices.
I agree with Rick Newman. We have now adjusted to $3.00 gas with little pain. We can take $4.00 better than when gas was below $2.00 in 2007. With the increase in prices, comes the incentive to pump more oil, which hopefully will keep prices from rising above $4.00 in the summer.

TNesler of WI 4:52PM January 19, 2011

There are too many Americans that dont care except for whats going into their pocket and not concerned with the 'guy' who has a tough time paying these big ger prices. Americans must take care of their own first. ie Alaska oil going overses for sale why not back to the lower 49 states? This alone would affect so many high priced costs like delivery cost of foods to the market. This goes on and on. If you are in position to do your part , DO IT...
With our natural resources we should not kiss any other countrys A--.

joseph derosa of CT 11:29AM January 19, 2011

I'm on fixed income and you convinced me to feel better about the prices going up! As noted by some in the other feedback, the price of gas affects a lot of other things-i.e food prices, for one! I think whoever wrote this article ought to get a job as a funeral director. As for me-it only hurts when I laugh!

Vince Clancy of PA 9:29AM January 19, 2011

No matter how you look at it, $4.00 gas WILL hurt! Unemployment has not moved, the currently employed are not seeing big raises, inflation is here (despite what's been said) and all of the things you mention in this article don't have a direct impact on the average-joe american worker.

Fed Up in CT of CT 8:47AM January 18, 2011

Rick Newman here, author of this article. Response to Tish Conway, who feels the adoption of more small cars is a "drive to kill" that forces Americans into "ever smaller, more dangerous vehicles." Think about that argument for a moment. It's true that a smaller car has a big disadvantage against a big car in a head-on collision. But if policy were to encourage everybody to drive the biggest possible car, to protect their own safety, what would that yield? More pedestrian deaths, more titanic collisions between gargantuan vehicles, even worse mismatches between big and small cars, and more dangerous conditions on roads not built for fat SUVs and the like. There are always winners and losers when conditions or policies change. So a big-car push would penalize people who choose to economize by driving a small car, while intensifying America's addiction to oil. A small-car push (which we don't exactly have) would continue to leave people who choose to drive a big car with a safety advantage, while equalizing the size of the overall fleet over time--which theoretically would improve overall safety. And the goal of good policy from a public safety standpoint is to optimize overall health and safety, not the safety of any one group. There are problems with both a big- and a small-car approach and I don't endorse either, I'm just pointing out some gaps in the logic of big-car advocates.

Rick Newman of NY 12:29PM January 14, 2011